'Shocked to see him with Australian'

KUALA LUMPUR: The former wife of the son of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said she was shocked to see her ex-husband attending a wedding reception in 1999 with an Australian woman.

At the trial of her RM400mil divorce claim against Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib, Shahnaz Abdul Majid testified that she did not know he had married the Australian woman, Louise Aida Hiley.

She said Mahmud Abu Bekir had brought the woman to his sister’s wedding at the house of the Chief Minister in Kuching.

Shahnaz, 51, a sister of singing star Sheila Majid, said she was shocked to see them attending the wedding reception.

“Why didn’t he tell me he was married to her?” Shahnaz reacted during cross-examination by Mah­mud Abu Bekir’s counsel Saadiah Din yesterday.

Asked if she knew at the time that Mahmud Abu Bekir had married Louise Aida, Shahnaz replied: “I did not know at that time.”

She said she had never asked him about the matter and only assumed they were married because they had children.

Recalling her visit to Singapore several years ago with her son Raden Murya, Shahnaz said she did not know Loiuse Aida had met the boy.

In her divorce papers, Shahnaz is seeking RM100mil mutaah (conciliatory payment under Islam), RM300mil in matrimonial property and half the assets owned by her ex-husband, including luxury cars, houses in various locations, hectares of land in Sarawak and company shares.

Shahnaz and Mahmud Abu Bekir married on Jan 9, 1992, when both were 28.

Raden Murya, who will be 21 this year, is their only son. Mahmud Abu Bekir filed for divorce on May 11, 2011.

Asked by Saadiah on the maintenance payment given by her ex-­husband, Shahnaz said between 1993 and 2001, she received a RM7,000 monthly salary as a Sarawak Securi­ties director.

Shahnaz, who holds an MBA in finance, added: “In 1997, the company obtained a licence to trade in the stock market and my salary was increased to RM10,000 a month in 2007 and RM12,000 the following year until August 2011.”

She said that from August 2011 to the present, neither she nor her son had received money from her ex-husband.

Re-examined by Akbardin on whether Mahmud Abu Bekir had sought her permission to marry Louise Aida, she said: “No.”